My Students Regret It After I Retired

41 – I’ll make you remember who I am

“The defendant is sentenced to three years imprisonment.”

After the verdict was delivered in the Imperial courtroom, Leos shouted as if having a fit.

“Why…why aren’t you accepting any of the evidence or statements I presented! You’re taking Belin’s word without a shred of proof, but why are you dismissing everything I say!”

“Be quiet.”

Judge Torigal looked down at Leos from the high platform, adding,

“This is the result of rational reasoning and deliberation.”

“How can it be rational when you only accepted Belin’s side.”

“We must listen to the victim. Where’s the law that says we should listen to the perpetrator?”

“I’m telling you, I’m not the perpetrator!”

“That’s what all perpetrators say. They’re all innocent.”

“…”

Leos clenched his fists hard, but eventually hung his head.

The bitterness of being able to do nothing, in the face of a man wielding overwhelming power, he was just one pathetic human being.

With Leos’ abilities, he could kill everyone around him, including the judge. But he didn’t.

‘If I kill them all…then what…?’

To kill dozens of innocents, just because they won’t acknowledge your own innocence? How could that ever be justified. And besides, even if he killed them all and escaped, there was nowhere for Leos to go.

He would be hunted by the entire Empire. Already branded a criminal, facing persecution and contempt from countless people, now he’d be caught for the horrific crime of serial murder, and when that happened, he’d be executed.

‘…Helpless.’

All those moments, killing thousands of mutant monsters, sealing thousands of Red Gates, spending years throwing his life away for the sake of the Empire – all of it, in an instant, reduced to nothing.

He hadn’t done it for the sake of honor, but the encouragement he received as a Gatekeeper, the support from so many people, that was what propelled him forward, even while staring death in the face. But now, everyone had started to condemn Leos.

The people of the Empire who participated in the national trial, even the Empire’s prosecutors and judges, and even Bellin, standing right in front of him in court.

It was a nightmare. A nightmare that would surely vanish as soon as he opened his eyes. That’s what Leos told himself. Because if it wasn’t, he wouldn’t be able to bear reality.

But that nightmare was too vivid, too real, and it lingered in Leos’s mind even now.

*

“Leos. Are you alright?”

Rakart, looking at Leos who was suddenly radiating murderous intent, asked with concern. But Leos just kept walking without a word.

Not far off, the Empire’s Judge Torigal was visible, beating someone.

“You little b*tch! If I told you I was here first, you should have understood, you lowlife with no pedigree!”

A girl, huddled into herself. She couldn’t say a thing, only using her arms to try and protect at least her head.

“Plea…please don’t…”

The girl spoke quietly, and that was the trigger for Torigal to get even angrier and burst into a fit of laughter.

“Don’t? What don’t? You little b*tch, what I do is decided by the likes of me, the upper class. Not by a pathetic piece of low-class trash like you.”

Bums who had been watching from nearby started to gather, and one of them, a man named Rochen, spoke up.

“Isn’t it a bit too much to treat a helpless girl like that? Maybe you should go a bit easier.”

As Rochen gently stepped in between Torigal and the girl who was being beaten, Torigal scanned him up and down for a moment. A man who looked bigger than him at first glance. Seeing the weapons he carried, Torigal backed away, took off his watch, and told his lackey next to him.

“Creat! These b*stards are blocking me, and you’re just gonna watch?”

As soon as Torigal finished speaking, Creat stomped forward, and then grabbed the arm of the obstructing Rochen. The man strained hard to avoid being pushed back, but it was impossible to withstand Creat, who possessed a physique akin to a monster.

“Ugh… Ughaaahk!”

Creat snapped Rochen’s arm clean, and a murmur rippled through the crowd. Torigal, as if it were the most natural thing, looked down at Rochen sprawled on the ground and spoke.

“Differentiate confidence from arrogance. Next time, it won’t be your arm, it’ll be your life.”

Rochen, staring at his utterly mangled arm, muttered.

“You bug-like b*stards…”

Former Judge Torigal sneered at Rochen.

“The way you’re writhing and flailing on the ground like a bug, it’s just like watching a real insect. Well, your level of existence is about that, I guess.”

Seeing Rochen, who had shielded her, get beaten, Hemina, who was already hurt, murmured.

“D…Don’t… stop it… please…”

Torigal gestured at her, and Creat began to move, intent on completely crushing Hemina.

Then.

“Enough. Before I kill you all.”

A familiar voice cut through.

Hemina stared blankly ahead. There, Leos was standing.

*

One of the many galleries within Interlunar.

The self-proclaimed manager, or ‘chief’, of the Leos gallery.

Her name was Hemina.

[HEAD MOD]

[Title: Isn’t Leos-nim Just So Cool?]

[Body: Anyone who wants to repost today’s pics, feel free to do so]

[Attachment: picture.jpg]

Three years ago, one day. I was posting about Leos on the gallery like any other day, when I started seeing the buzz on various communities and media outlets, so I started digging through articles.

Hemina read the article, stunned.

[Leos, Commander of the Gatekeepers, Accused of Harassing an Innocent Disciple and Named as a Suspect.]

The moment she saw it, Hemina slammed her fist on the desk and yelled.

“That’s impossible. It must be a frame-up, for sure.”

The Leos that Hemina had directly met and experienced was not some degenerate who’d harass his disciple.

‘Absolutely…absolutely there’s no way…’

Hemina’s family had been completely wiped out by monsters while on a trip. The cause was a suddenly occurring Red Gate. Driven by youthful recklessness, Hemina had secretly entered a gate controlled by the Empire to get revenge, and as a result, had been surrounded by monsters and was on the verge of death.

Leos had looked at Hemina and said,

“I don’t know your circumstances. But, seeing that you forced your way into a gate controlled by the Empire to fight monsters, and looking at your eyes, I have a rough idea. You want revenge, it seems. Did you lose your family to monsters?”

“…Move aside.”

“Who’s the type of person who’d pretend not to see someone trying to kill themselves right in front of them?”

“What do you even know! My family… my family were all killed by those things! They all died right in front of me!”

“Then, why didn’t you attack them back then?”

“…”

Hemina couldn’t say anything and her body shook uncontrollably. The reason was simple. Even when her family had been discovered by the monsters that came out of the Red Gate and were being killed, she hadn’t been able to do a thing.

Even as monsters ravaged her family before her eyes, her arms and legs were frozen, stiff as solid ice. Move, move, she screamed a hundred, a thousand times, but her body wouldn’t budge. And not long after, she lost consciousness.

When she opened her eyes, she was severely injured, but still alive. Her family around her, however, were all dead from massive blood loss.

She’d lost her family without even putting up a fight against the monsters. Disgusted by her own worm-like self, she thought she absolutely had to kill them, no matter what. She’d blindly walked into the Red Gate.

“Those who charge forward with only a goal in mind, without strategy or planning, crumble quickly. Especially if that goal is revenge.”

“What do you know…”

“Describe the monster that killed your family. If it was outside the gate, it was certainly a mutated monster.”

As if possessed, Hemina began reciting the monster’s appearance.

“It had antennae on its head. Its teeth were grotesquely sharp, and its tail looked like it had been cut off. And near its heart, there was a strange black crystal…”

“That’s enough.”

Without another word, Leos called for his comrade, calmed Hemina, and then returned to his original spot a few hours later. In Leos’s hand was a monster, half-dead and writhing.

“…!”

Hemina’s whole body began to tremble. She remembered. She remembered it clearly. It was the monster that had annihilated her family. Seeing Hemina’s reaction, Leos spoke to her.

“This monster possesses the ability to paralyze specific targets. The reason you couldn’t move wasn’t because of your survival instincts, but because of this b*stard’s ability. You didn’t cowardly run away. It was this b*stard’s power that made you like that.”

“…”

Leos slowly walked towards Hemina and placed a dagger in her hand.

“You kill it.”

*Thunk.* As Hemina plunged the dagger in, the monster thrashed and then collapsed, falling limply to the ground. Leos then smashed the corpse with his mace again and again, until nothing remained.

“Go. And don’t come back. The mutated monster that killed your family is dead now.”

Hemina had achieved her revenge in an instant, yet no knot within her heart had been untied.

“You know… I got my revenge… but… but it still hurts so much… I haven’t… I haven’t gotten any better at all…”

“That’s normal. As time passes and more memories pile up…you’ll get numb, eventually.”

Leos finished the sentence, turning his back to leave, adding one last thing.

“Live. Not just for your family, but for the countless others killed by the monsters—I’ll take care of the revenge. You, just live. That’s how you honor the family you’ve lost.”

*

Hemina rubbed her eyes, wondering if she was dreaming.

‘Leos…sir…’

Leos walked slowly, his gaze fixed on Torigal, not glancing anywhere else, and stopped in front of him.

“What? What’s this dumb fuck staring at?”

“Maybe…you don’t remember me.”

Leos asked, and Torigal tilted his head, responding,

“Who the fuck are you? Why the fuck would I need to remember you?”

“Coming to a safe zone like this, I figured you must have heard about me?”

“What the fuck are you on about, you dumb prick. My goons just said this place was a good spot to leech off of, that’s all.”

“Ah…”

“Ah… my ass, you dumb fuck. Ah…are you a criminal or something? I’ve had so many criminals trying to get back at me after my verdicts. Fucking trash. If they’d lived decent lives, I wouldn’t have had to convict them, but instead they try to take revenge on me. The reason you lot live your whole lives like that is because you don’t know your place.”

Leos listened to the man’s words, his head bowed and his body beginning to tremble.

He doesn’t remember.

He took money, ruined a person’s life, and he can’t even remember that person’s face.

“Creat! Cut off one of that b*stard’s legs and bring it to me. The arrogant prick just barges in here making a fuss…”

“No need to. I’ll go to him.”

Leos tossed his chainsword and mace to the ground, then started walking with his bare fists.

Immediately, Kreat charged. Leos met the giant’s punch head-on.

-CRASH!

With a deafening sound, Kreat clutched his hand in pain. Every joint in his hand was shattered, turning it blue in an instant. Leos spoke, his voice chilling as he watched.

“I’ll remind you. Who I am.”